Purdue Tourism & Hospitality
Research Center
Sustainable Tourism
Branding: Experience and
Authenticity
Liping A. Cai, Ph.D., MBA
Professor and Director
Purdue Tourism and Hospitality Research Center
http://www.purdue.edu/tourism/
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Research Center
Starbucks from Experience to Commodity
• Schultz: “the commoditization of the
Starbucks experience”
???
Experience
Service
Product
Commodity
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Starbucks Losing Authenticity
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Le Méridien’s Emotional Makeover
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Budget Hotels – Telling Stories
Experiential
Value
Symbolic and
Emotional Levels
Functional Level
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Feelings,
Emotions,
Sense of
Authenticity
Brand
<<<<Emotional
Experience
Service
Commodity
Rational>>>>
Product
TIME, Jeffrey Kluger, Dec. 3, p 60
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Left: Emotional
and Affective
Right: Rational
and Cognitive
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BW Dec. 10, p. 63
The 4-P Marketing Is Dead!
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Marketing Æ Branding
• Product (service) Æ Brand
• Marketing
Æ Marketing Innovations
Æ Branding
• Branding is a holistic and sustainable approach to
serving the experiential needs of contemporary
consumers
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Destination Branding
The destination offer is inherently experiential:
• Before the trip – Promise
• During the trip – Action
• After the trip: Cultivation
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Destination Branding ≠ Creative Advertising
• The Band Wagon
– Pressure to create a message to stand out
– Sensational
– Even controversial
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Destination Branding ≠ Creative Advertising
• Who are there to deliver and keep the
promise?
• When promise is broken…
• The Australian promise
– Where the…
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Where is the Authenticity?
• “Creative” slogans and taglines:
– Examples closer to home:
•
•
•
•
Larger than life
The Best Place in the…
Come to life
Pure and simple
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Authenticity by Delivering and Keeping
Promise - the People Factor
• Employees who deal with customers not only
represent the brand but, in the perceptions of
customers, become the brand (McEwen, 2001)
• When the importance of employees to brand
marketing is ignored, the cost is huge
• Employees on the job, “off the job”
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Post-Experience: Loyalty
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Residents – de facto Employees
Intangible
• Challenge I
• Challenge II
• Challenge III
Greater risk and extensive information search
Image
Perishable
Production and consumption of the product
take place simultaneously
Interdependent Supply
Chain
Both horizontal and vertical.
• Challenge IV
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Authenticity – People Factor
• How do they do it?
–
–
–
–
–
Harrison County, Indiana
Santa Monica, California
Copenhagen, Denmark
Taiwan
Croatia
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Harrison County, Indiana
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Imagery Research
Desired by Residents:
Perceived by Visitors
1. Downtown Corydon, the
square
2. Home, hometown, family,
community
3. Slower space, relaxing
4. Historic
5. Step back in time, nostalgic,
quaint
1. Affective appeal
2. Quality of facilities
3. Overall
attractiveness
4. Casino draw
5. Variety of
attractions
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Community Educational Campaign
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I Am Santa Monica TM
• A Certified Brand Ambassador (CBA)
designation
• Over 1,000 participants taking the initial
certificate course
• An advanced CBA in development
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Educational Programs
• Sustainable Destination Positioning
Branding Educational Courses
• CDME
• DMAI
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Wonderful Copenhagen
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Competion
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Too Many Senders of Too Many Messages
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Wonderful Copenhagen
• Started as a traditional DMO
• Has grown to be a service
organization for a network of
tourism-related organizations
• A flagship brand
• Interdependence vs.
independence
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Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
• Local food as the lynchpin for the brand
• Study of residents’ attitude toward the
strategy
– Own perceptions
– Recommendations
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Targeting Mainland Cousins
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Moslavina Branding Project
• A regional tourism brand of Croatia
• Research began with locals
–
–
–
–
Pensioners
Families with children
Youth
Tourism professionals
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Best Practices
1. Mindset shift from a “creative” endeavor to a strategic
development process
2. DMO governing and/or advisory body fully supportive,
residents’ buy-in and participation
3. Agreement and active participation of other marketing
agencies and visitor industry proponents
4. Brand research conducted by credible third-party
suppliers
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Best Practices
5. Use of current destination imagery research and related
market/competitive analyses
6. Destination positioning and brand promise statements,
brand blueprint for use in brand identity development
and communications
7. Use of integrated communication strategies
8. Destination brand as the flagship brand of a place
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Best Practices
9. Destination brand application to all visitor marketing
and local audience communications
10. Development of branded service training and
professional development programs
11. Enhanced equity in the destination brand through
formation of co-branding partnerships and strategic
alliances
12. Monitoring and evaluation on brand equity relative to
target markets
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Main Challenges in Destination Branding
1. Acceptance of one overarching destination
brand
2. Appropriate brand research methods
3. Consistent delivery of destination brand
promise
4. Accountability
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Social Exchange in Destination Branding
• From economic perspective
– Short-term
– Transactional, rational
– Exchange of goods and services
• To sociological perspective
– Long-term
– Relational, emotional
– Exchange of relations, emotions, feelings
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Social Exchange in Destination Branding
DMOs ,
Service
Providers
Tangibles
Transfer of products/service
for money
Residents
Tourists
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BW Dec. 10, 2007 p. 063
The Same Fate for DMO?
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The New Paradigm
• Branding in general
takes place more and
more in a social
structure
• Social networking
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The New Paradigm–“Old” Foundations
• Sociological
• Relational exchange of
experience and emotions
• Psychological
• Image studies
• Economic
• Brand equity
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Interdisciplinary Innovations
• Intra-regional
Cooperative Branding
• Inter-country, interregion Co-Branding
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Tourism Branding
– A continuing process to create
authentic tourist experiences and
build a sustained image that
emotionally bonds with the host
community and resonates with its
targeted markets
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Happy Branding
&
Happy Conferencing
Thank You!
www.lipingcai.us